The Film Corner

[Unorthodox]

Had a particularly crappy week and needed a pallet cleanser, so Friday night Alec and I went to see Life at the dollar house. 

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I knew we were in for B stock creature flick from the get go.  And it is rather paint by numbers, but it's well done paint by numbers. 

What it does right:
Pacing is near perfect, and a little bit of a throw back to the 70s era.
Cinematography is pretty darn good, and they capture the weightless feeling of space well. 
There are two extremely satisfying deaths for those of us who appreciate such things.  (my son nearly lost his popcorn at one)
Calvin (as they name it) is suitably alien. 

What it does poorly:
whoever is on the writing team doesn't understand orbital mechanics, or how a space station really works well at all. 
I mentioned the two satisfying deaths above...the rest are rather bland. 
The mandatory (I argue it shouldn't feel mandatory) 'gotcha' at the end of most horror movies was too telegraphed and poor.  I immediately had 3 better scenes.

[Unorthodox]

We lost phone, internet, and TV on Friday, so rented Fantastic Beasts and who cares about them?

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As someone luke warm on the Potter Movies, and rather cold on the Potter Books, this movie really didn't do a lot for me.  I didn't care for the lead, the costar, or the primary villain, but liked the whole concept of the obscurus, which is arguably the best thing in the whole potterverse IMO.  I found the Deus Ex Machina ending stupid and poorly thought out. 


hEt is a devoted Potter geek, and loved it. 

Talia was ambivalent. 

Alec is a potter geek and grew bored. 

[Unorthodox]

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When I first saw the previews for this, I labeled it as a race/gender reversed version of The Skeleton Key using hypnotism instead of voudou.

After seeing nothing but great reviews I figured I must be wrong and was looking forward to it. 

Now that I've watched it, I pretty much nailed it with my initial thoughts.  However, it is rather expertly done, and channels a near perfect 70's horror vibe. 


Bonus fabulous title track. 

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[Unorthodox]

The Mummy

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Going in I expected bad action crapfest. 

And the opening 20 minutes is full of bad action crapfest.  Then it falls into this rhythm of classic horror vibe intermixed with modern too-long survival horror action sequences.  I was actually pleasantly surprised. 

Sexy female mummy is awesome.  Seriously, The Mummy even back to the original, had this somewhat sympathetic longing for his lost love, to a 'youre trying to steal my girl' anger. 

That's gone.  But in it's place is a dark obsessed girl with a woman scorned vibe that really WORKS. 

That said, they really missed some opportunity with her and the old narrative of them becoming more human the more they, um, collect. 

Gratuitous (barely) PG-13 Nude scene.  Hey, horror movies need these things...

Creepy mummies if very much zombie-esque. 

That said...I think Cruise is miscast.  I get they wanted him to channel Lestat.  We needed Louis.  Cruise has a lot of tools in his bag, that pained struggle against his own dark isn't one of them. 


As for the whole Dark Universe...

I can see where they want to go.  I'm on board. 

[Spacy]

Valorian

Sooo much potential.  So much MISSED potential.

Story was so unbelievable and just poorly executed, that the amazing universe and background was completely wasted on it.  This could have taken place anywhere, really. 

[Unorthodox]

A Cure for Wellness.

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Um.  Where to start? 

2.5 hours.  Lets start there.  This is a bloated run time for a horror movie.  However, it was still not enough time to fully develop this story, so various bits feel extremely rushed. 

This would have served better as an American Horror Story season, or a Netflix mini-series. 

Pervasive nudity abounds, (I mention this mostly because the trailers would not lead one to believe this) and it's intended to shock the audience.  Unfortunately, that form of shock has never existed within me, so the scenes tend to fall flat. 

Runs on the premise of you're not supposed to be sure whether the lead is crazy or not, but the foreshadowing is done with the subtlety of a jack hammer. 

Rather disappointing as a whole, but with enough good I'd still love to see a mini series.   

[Unorthodox]

Kong: Skull Island

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Three fold review:

As a KING KONG movie:  Below average.  It barely scratches on the emotional aspects of Kong.

As a setup for the Kong vs Godzilla it was supposedly setting up:  Fairly well, actually.  Plenty of world building done to the whole 'universe'.  Monsters are real, and where they are coming from. 

As a stand alone monster movie:  Really good. 

Samuel L Jackson steals this movie.  I find his acting typically overdone and sometimes bordering on comical as a result.  I don't know if he just dialed it back, or the director just knew how to use him better than most, but he absolutely nails the role given him in a heart of darkness-esque tale this movie weaves. 

[Unorthodox]

Ghost in the shell. 

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I fell asleep and wasn't interested enough to go back and finish later...

Was coming off much more like something out of blade runner than it was from the Ghost in the Shell world I know. 

[Lorizael]

Recently watched the new one, too. The whole thing felt perfunctory, like all they cared to do was mention a particular idea or plot element and consider that done rather than actually explore any themes. There was no ghost in the shell.

[Beowulf]

I have also watched Ghost in the Shell recently, and must say that I unexpectedly liked it. The story line, actors' play and gorgeous Scarlet This movie glues you to the screen. Was happy to watch something of a high quality as 2017 has brought only worthless movies IMHO

[Unorthodox]

gorgeous Scarlet

Seemed like mostly an excuse to stare at Scarlet wearing nothing but the cyborg 'skin'.  Maybe enjoyment is based on how much one is influenced by this appeal.  Or perhaps too much of me liking the anime so much. 

[Buster's Uncle]

The anime drives me nuts - it's what I call half smart, Death Note being another example of one that thinks it's clever/profound, but ALL the characters need to talk 1/4 as much at most to seem sharp if you're over the age of twelve...

[Unorthodox]

Death Note needs an editor and it'd be fine.  I'm kind of curious what Netflix will do to it. 

Ghost in the Shell anime was uneven in places, but there's a couple of really good episodes in there that made me like the series as a whole.  Keep in mind this is ME here, I don't do your typical scifi.  (and not huge anime viewer either, really, more a take it or leave it type)   I'm not even sure I ever saw the series in order, even.  Just episodes here and there on a semi-regular basis. 

[Beowulf]

gorgeous Scarlet

Seemed like mostly an excuse to stare at Scarlet wearing nothing but the cyborg 'skin'.  Maybe enjoyment is based on how much one is influenced by this appeal.  Or perhaps too much of me liking the anime so much.

yes and no. I said that I liked the story +gorgeous Scarlet. The story is good. Scarlet is gorgeous. That's all why I liked the movie.

[Spacy]

I didn't mind either of them; but found nothing to write home about, either. 

I didn't get the whole tribe thing in kong, with them being on the islands in the late 20's early 30's and having come from a freighter.  Was there boat people back then with whole tribes moving around (I am not familiar with SE asian history at that time) as cargo?  Sam Jackson came across as a bad Apocalypse Now Colonel Kurtz wanna be - although how they tied it into the media loosing the war instead of the military was done excellently I thought.  The (admittedly few) combat military officers and senior NCO's have have known of the years were all about keeping their people safe, not putting them unnecessarily at risk. 


Ghost I thought was a good movie, but was so far off on comparison to the original anime that I thought it would have done a much better job if they gave it a different title, with Ghose being a subtitle.  Would have made it clear just how different it was.  Of course, I rewatched the anime movie the day before I watched the Scarlet new version.